Advanced Equipment Company Builds the Right Foundation for ERP Success
The Challenge: A Legacy System, a Previous Failed Attempt, and No Room to Get It Wrong
Advanced Equipment Company (AEC) has been helping customers solve complex material handling challenges since 1960. Today, the Charlotte-based company is a systems integrator specializing in conveyor systems and other material handling solutions.
Behind the scenes, however, AEC was still relying on a custom-developed business system dating back to 1979. While the system had been updated over the years, its functionality remained limited, the underlying technology was increasingly difficult to support, and even minor errors could create disruptions requiring specialized assistance.
AEC knew it was time for a modern ERP system. But the company also knew firsthand how difficult that transition could be.
About a decade earlier, AEC had attempted to replace its system internally. The effort did not go well.
“The well was a little poisoned...because there was an internal attempt 10 years ago or so that went very poorly. And so we were kind of starting back up with the same team members, but needed to find a way to get it on a healthier level.”
— Josh Hamrick, Advanced Equipment Company
This time, AEC wanted an experienced partner to guide the process.
“We didn't have the inside expertise to be able to help us with the selection process or be kind of organized and run that. Nobody has ever gone through it. We weren't familiar with it.”
— Darin Boik, President, Advanced Equipment Company
The Approach: Understand the Business Before Selecting the Software
AEC engaged AJC® to manage the ERP selection process, beginning with something deliberately more fundamental than software demonstrations: understanding how AEC actually operated.
AJC Principal Consultant Lori Strom facilitated process-mapping sessions covering AEC's critical business processes and worked with the team to identify pain points, future-state needs, and the requirements that would ultimately differentiate one ERP solution from another. From there, AJC researched potential systems and vendors, coordinated demonstrations, facilitated team debriefs, investigated unanswered questions, and helped AEC compare its options using consistent criteria.
The process mapping proved more valuable than AEC initially expected.
“When you're on a system for 40 years and some of the people using it have been here for close to that entire time, you just kind of do the same things every day, and you don't really even know why. Sometimes it's just what you do. And so having Lori sit down with us and go through mapping out those processes was huge.”
— Josh Hamrick
That understanding became particularly important when AEC encountered a requirement that several potential ERP solutions struggled to accommodate: the company's commission process.
After initial vendor conversations appeared to lead to a dead end, Lori changed the approach. Rather than continuing through lengthy demonstrations with systems that might ultimately fail a critical requirement, she arranged focused conversations specifically around commissions.
“There was a moment pretty early on where we had had introductory meetings with about three different groups and they weren't going to work... We were stuck and just, like, don't even know what to do next, and Lori came up, like, immediately with this solution of, let's just talk to people, let's set up meetings and only talk about how they're going to handle commission.”
— Josh Hamrick
Those targeted conversations quickly separated viable options from those that simply weren't a fit.
AJC also helped AEC navigate another easily overlooked part of ERP selection: choosing the right vendor partner, not simply the right software. When AEC wasn't comfortable with one provider representing a potential ERP solution, Lori helped the team explore another provider offering the same product.
“It was nice having AJC in the middle of that... Lori helped guide us and told us that, hey, if you're not feeling good, there's others we can talk to and look to.”
— Darin Boik
The Result: The Right ERP — and a Team Ready to Implement It
Through the structured selection process, AEC narrowed the market to the solutions that could support both how the company operates today and where it wants to be five years from now.
Ultimately, AEC selected Priority ERP.
For Darin and the team, Priority stood out not only for its functionality and future-looking technology, but because its team listened carefully to AEC's requirements and demonstrated an understanding of its business processes. The solution could also handle important functions—including commissions—within one platform while providing additional capabilities such as customer portals and CRM functionality.
But perhaps the most important result wasn't simply the ERP AEC selected.
It was how prepared the organization was when implementation began.
“I can't even describe the difference in how much more prepared we are than we were in January.”
— Josh Hamrick
Josh contrasted that preparation directly with AEC's previous attempt, when the company had purchased a system without first doing the work to fully understand its own processes and requirements.
This time was different.
“We're in a much better spot than that. Like I said, I can't even quantify how much better of a place we are... I don't have any illusions that it's going to be easy or smooth, but I feel really good that we're going to have a working system early next year.”
— Josh Hamrick
Would AEC Recommend AJC?
Absolutely.
“If it were for the same process that we went through for ERP selection, I would sort of say, don't even, you know, there's no other option. Go ahead and do it. Just, just, it's worth it.”
— Josh Hamrick
Darin put the value of bringing experienced ERP-selection leadership into the process in even more concrete terms:
“If you haven't been through this or don't have the experience or understand the process and what's needed to go through the ERP selection and what information you need to have on your company side to be able to select properly and how to navigate all the different systems out there, having somebody like AJC is going to save you two or three times what their cost is, I think, in the long run.”
— Darin Boik, President, Advanced Equipment Company
For AEC, ERP selection wasn't simply about finding new software. It was about understanding the business, knowing which requirements truly mattered, finding the right technology and partner, and entering implementation prepared to succeed.
After more than four decades on its legacy system—and one unsuccessful attempt to replace it—AEC was finally ready for what comes next.
